The Big Punchline
by Hobbsey256
Summary: The Teen Titans are captured and are unable to find Robin after they manage to escape. They find out that Robin was taken by someone other than their captor, and are left with two options: go on a suicide mission against Robin's dangerous captor, or ask Robin's terrifying mentor to help them find and rescue Robin. After all, who other than the Batman could take down the Joker?


Blackness.

Starfire opened her eyes, which were greeted with pure darkness. Her wrists were bound to something… and her legs as well. They were tied to… a chair? It felt like a chair, anyway.

This wasn't a problem for her. She easily snapped the ropes that held her four limbs to the chair and stood up.

Starfire had no idea where she was, or how she got there. Thankfully, her starbolts were a perfect lightsource. She created one in her left hand, and the area was illuminated with a bright, green light.

She was in some sort of warehouse. There were large, wooden boxes all around her, and long corridors made up of identical and similar boxes.

The building was warm and stuffy, making her warmer skin surprisingly uncomfortable. She felt anxious; her vision was limited since the starbolt she'd created had only lit a limited distance, which was below her absolute threshold. The building must have been fairly large, as well…

In the distance, she heard loud footsteps. They weren't too far away, but they were behind the rows upon rows of boxes around her. To investigate, she slowly rose off of the ground, and progressively sped up as she got higher up. She flew over the wall of boxes in front of her where the footsteps had been coming from, and lowered herself close enough to the ground that her starbolt would make it visible.

"Cyborg?"

Just below her was one of her closest friends, and her cybernetically enhanced teammate.

"Starfire? Is that you?" Cyborg asked, quickly turning around and looking up at Starfire.

"It is, indeed!" Starfire responded, smiling wide. She suddenly became much more comfortable with her situation now that she'd found one of her friends. But funny enough, she still had no idea quite _what_ her situation was.

"Cyborg, do you know where we are located?" Starfire asked.

"I'd be able to tell you, but it looks like my mapping system's been disabled by someone. I can't get it back online," Cyborg said, looking at a screen on his forearm. "But my best guess is that we're somewhere dangerous. Otherwise, we'd probably already know."

"That is a logical guess. I, too, believe that we are in some form of danger," Starfire said, her tiny eyebrows middle-raised.

"Have you found any of the others?" asked Cyborg.

"I am afraid not," Starfire said. "Perhaps we should look for them together?"

"Sounds like a plan. Let's get going."

 **TTTTTT**

"Agh… where… am I?"

Robin woke up bound to a chair. That was, at least, what he assumed. The rough feeling of strong ropes scraped against his wrists and ankles as they slightly squirmed. Robin stopped squirming almost immediately, though, when a million little dots of sharp pain jabbed at his body.

"Ow! What in the- GAH!"

His body jerked around as the pain got deeper into his body. It was like he was being stabbed by a thousand tiny nails. He looked down to see why he was experiencing this pain, and discovered that it was closer to a thousand little nails than he thought.

He had been tied up in the chair with barbed wire. The only light around him was from a lightbulb hanging just above his head.

"Son of a- OUCH!"

Robin couldn't finish a sentence without being stabbed by the barbs. Each time he was stabbed, his body jerked a little in another direction, only to be stabbed _again_. In order to stop this, he braced his body in place. The barbs stabbed him, but he simply sat still and growled at the pain.

Right now, Robin already knew that he was in trouble. There was no way he'd escape from this chair without tearing himself up. He knew that _he_ didn't wrap himself in barbed wire, nor did any of his _friends_ , so it was safe to assume that one of his enemies had captured him and done this to him. But who…?

Of course. It's almost too obvious.

" _Slade_! I know you're here! Show yourself now so I can take you down easier!" Robin shouted into the darkness.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Birdbrain, but I'm no Deathstroke!" said a voice from behind Robin. It was too familiar… a little high and a little raspy. _Clownish_ …

" _Oh, God-_ " Robin thought to himself. He only knew one person who sounded like this. It was-

"Oh, who am I kidding? Who could be disappointed by _ME_?! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! _HOO- HA HA HA HA!_ "

-The Joker...


End file.
